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Australasian Lesbian Movement, `Claudia's Group' and Lynx: `Non-Political' Lesbian Organisation in Melbourne, 1969-1980
In a 1994 article published in Hecate, Clive Moore was only able to point to Liz Ross's `Escaping the Well of Loneliness' and two short pieces in Robert French's Camping by a Billabong as constituting the total sum of publications on Australian lesbian history.(1) Although Moore slightly overstates the paucity of Australian lesbian history, and while significant work is beginning to emerge, it is the case that, compared to the extensive histories produced overseas and the rapid growth of gay male history in Australia, remarkably little has been published in this country.(2) This article will address, at least on a small level, the relative invisibility of lesbians within Australian history through a discussion of a number of lesbian organisations which were established in Melbourne from the late 1960s to 1980. Beginning with the `mixed' social organisation Checkmates, I move onto a discussion of the Australasian Lesbian Movement (ALM), before looking at two important lesbian social organisations `Claudia's Group' and Lynx in the period from 1974-1980.(3) Although I argue that ALM was, at least initially, a political organisation (however `political' is defined) much of this paper is concerned with lesbian organisations which defined themselves as `non-political.'(4)
While little has been written on lesbian organisations in the 1970s, what has been produced has concentrated upon lesbian activism within the women's movement, Gay Liberation and the Campaign Against Moral Persecution (CAMP). In this paper I present a narrative of prior and parallel developments in lesbian organisation which have not been integrated into writings on lesbian and gay organisation in the 1970s. In doing this I am arguing for a re-assessment of the importance of these organisations.
Checkmates Club and the emergence of lesbian and gay social organisation in Melbourne
In the course of conducting interviews with Melbourne women who identified as lesbian during the 1960s, I was told of the existence of substantial lesbian and gay male social networks dating back at least until the late 1940s.(5) The women I spoke with recalled making contact with other lesbians in `camp' social networks cohered around artistic and theatrical pursuits, sporting clubs, and the army. There was, in addition, a small number of hotels in which camp...